Knowledge is Power
by the Klabautermann
Summary: There must be a reason for ending up in the cursed forest with no obvious goal. There is. For every one of them, it'll be a payment. For every single one of them, that reason was worth it. Featuring the entire cast. WX-78 in main role, accompanied by an OC (not really main character, also Maxwell's victim). Rated "T" for violence/traumatic situations. Clean language.


_Knowledge is power. Knowledge is expensive. Knowledge is life. Ignorance ends in death._

* * *

„This was never our deal!" Wilson screamed, fighting the shadows that pulled him into the machine. All in vain. A smug murmur.

„You never asked, have you?"

„You never told me," Wilson cried desperately, „I didn't know!"

He chuckled.

„You didn't know? I thought you were a scientist."

„You offered me secret knowledge! What good does this do?!"

„Oh but you're far from obtaining entirety of the knowledge I can give you, Wilson. You have to pay up first. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, as they say. By pulling that switch you have agreed to my terms. And now... your payment begins."

„You—„ Wilson struggled to yell, „You MADE ME!"

„Liar."

Wilson sunk into the shadows as the machine pulled him in.

* * *

_System reboot._

_Last point of adequate configuration: date unknown, 12:32 AM_

_Loading back up memory._

_System is up and running._

WX-78 „_woke up_". He was surprised to find out he felt slight discomfort inside of his metallic head. It was unlike any other inconveniences he had to put up with before. He was fairly sure it was what humans would call a „_headache_". How he was capable of actually being bothered by it, though, WX couldn't understand.

He got up, just to see a puff of smoke dispersing into the air, and looked around. He was in the middle of a green, lively meadow, filled with flowers, grass and bees. His memory vaguely loaded up a voice telling him he would die unless he found a shelter and food. It was strange. His memory would usually serve him perfectly well, or not at all. Seeing simply fragments and bits of the whole picture was a new experience.

Concluding his system wasn't functioning properly due to sudden transfer to this place by methods he couldn't understand, he quickly evaluated his situation. He had neither food nor shelter, and wasn't in any place that would spark his memory. All he could do was listen to the advice he was given, and prepare for the night that would come soon.

It didn't take long before the sun started setting and the gentle shades of orange colored the green grass. WX had collected enough materials to build a campfire and managed to find several not yet eaten berries around the half picked bushes. Putting his quickly crafted tools down to the ground, he sat and sighed as he let the berries sizzle near the fire before hungrily eating them. Yet another unusual feeling. The hunger that used to merely slow down his system had now felt painfully real, human like, or at least he supposed so. The absence of more edible substances in his system was bothering him to the point where it wasn't simply "a system error" and was blurring his vision ever so slightly. The fact he was actually able to process actual food instead of simply fueling himself up with oil was astonishing, but he spent little time pondering about it – the hunger wouldn't go away and at the moment, all he wanted was the foreign pain to go away.

It had occurred to him that maybe, just maybe, this was the part of his payment. Suffering like all the living beings do, weakened from their exposure to the coldness, hunger and pain, things he once didn't have to care about. Now, he was hungry, thirsty and wishing for a blanket that he believed could come in handy. He saw humans many times warming themselves up with blankets, and wondered what the warmth felt like.

There was another thing bothering him that he couldn't indentify. The space around him grew darker and emptier, and it had felt... uncomfortable. WX found himself despising the living world much more than he thought, now that he was a part of it. He wished he could be back in his empty shell with no unusual biological properties at all.

_Loneliness_. WX wondered at the night that came and the darkness fell like a curtain around him. Creepy shadows drew scary looking imagery on the floor and it didn't help him calm down one bit. The absence of humans, animals and anything remotely living made him feel restless.

_Fright_. It was all too much for the small robot. He couldn't take in this huge intake of physiological phenomena. He was cursed with instincts and needs of a living being. The payment would have proven much harder of a task now that he was like this.

_Paranoia_. The sounds of the forest changed. There was a strange noise in the air. His vision was getting weird. His artificial body shivered a needed movement that would usually remain unshown. He needed to hide, but there was nowhere to go. All he could do was lie down and wait for the scary night to work its course, staring into the decreasing fire. He would fall in and out of consciousness, balancing on the edge between dreams and reality, but sleep just wouldn't come. It was usually no trouble to simply shut down, but he assumed that was yet another thing changed about him.

_Despair_. The strange pain clutching at the metallic insides he wasn't supposed to know he had. The frantic stares into the dark searching for the glowing eyes that were there barely a few moments ago. Or were they?

He felt dizzy. A huge, unwelcoming shadow was staring from the other side of the decreasing campfire, waiting. Watching. WX winced. He never winced before. He felt a little bit better after it, so he allowed himself to wince one more time. One more time. Again.

He knew was he a living being, he would be crying now.

The night was long.

_Hope_. He had no idea for how long was he lying down in the grass, hoping to sink into it, hoping it would grow bigger and hide him from the empty sockets of the shadow circling him like a shark. But it was soft. It almost felt warm. And it was welcoming. WX closed his eyes.

...

* * *

He had awakened into a wonderful morning. The sun was already high in the sky and he let out a sigh of relief. Still, his stomach was nowhere near being as happy as he was. He quickly picked up his tools and moved on, trying to find something to eat.

Luck didn't follow him, though. He felt his energy rapidly disappearing as he stumbled through the forest. Then came a point where he simply couldn't take another step. It wasn't even his battery that had failed him. He let himself hit the ground, and didn't move anymore, feeling oddly better by refraining from movement.

He could hear something scuttling about and hissing. It was getting closer. It had many legs, by the sound of it. WX couldn't get up. He would remain in the dirt, torn to pieces by the disgusting creature approaching him.

Or, at the very least, so he figured.


End file.
